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"Devices, connectivity, and IT services will make up the majority of the IoT market in 2020," IDC said in a statement. "Together, they are estimated to account for over two thirds of the worldwide IoT market in 2020, with devices (modules/sensors) alone representing 31.8% of the total. By 2020, IDC expects that IoT purpose-built platforms, application software, and ‘as-a-service' offerings will capture a larger percentage of revenue."

A number of organisations have formal definitions for the Internet of Things. Most can be summarised as the collection of all devices that communicate through the Internet without human input. This includes machine-to-machine (M2M) communication between sensors, servers and monitoring devices of all kinds, through software. Cisco regularly refers to the Internet of Everything, which includes human interaction.

"While wearable devices are the consumer face of the Internet of Things, and where recognition of IoT appears to begin, the real opportunity remains in the enterprise and public sector markets," said Vernon Turner, senior vice president and research fellow (IoT), Enterprise Systems, IDC. "The ripple effect of IoT is driving traditional business models from IT-enabled business processes to IT-enabled services and finally to IT-enabled products, which is beginning to disrupt the IT status quo."